"The Rocker" Review - Written by Kelsey Zukowski

This review is a repost from more than a month ago. "The Rocker" came out on Wednesday - read along to see if it is worth to go see in theaters!


Starring: Rainn Wilson, Teddy Geiger, Emma Stone, Josh Gad, Christina Applegate, Jane Lynch, Jeff Garlin
Directed By: Peter Cattanneo
Written By: Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolordarsky
Released: August 20, 2008
Grade: B

The Rocker is a movie that follows the same type of plot as School of Rock. There are actually quite a few similarities. Both films show a washed up middle aged rocker unable to give up his dream and joins a band with kids. The main difference is that rather than going to a school and being involved with younger kids, The Rocker centers itself with a band of 18-year-olds. School of Rock is clearly the much better film especially with the energy that Black exerted through it. The Rocker follows in its’ footsteps and although it is the lesser film, some very likeable actors use their charisma to get us to care and enjoy the film.

Robert “Fish” Fishman (Wilson) has been with his band since high school. They are all very close and are creating great music. After playing a big gig, a record label even wants to sign them. All of Fish’s dreams are about to come true, or so they should have. The only catch to the record deal was that Fish was out of the band and he would be replaced with one of the associate’s nephews. 20 years later and he has never really gotten over this. The band he was with has been popular ever since. He sees their pictures plastered everywhere, hears the music, and the hype and fans never seem to leave him alone. After he lashes out at a fan at work, he loses his job, girlfriend, and home. He goes crawling back to his sister (Lynch) and stays in her very low ceiling attic. After his nephew, Matt (Gad) loses the drummer for his band, A.D.D., that is playing prom, he ends up asking his uncle to stand in for him. The other band members, lead singer and guitarist, Curtis (Geiger) and bass player, Amelia (Stone), are a little unsure about this mostly because of his age, but decide to go with him after they realize they have few other options. At first the prom gig, is going really well. That is until Fish gets so carried away with playing his drums for an audience again, that he forgets about every one else in the band and takes over.

Fish realizes that he blew this chance, but simply feels that he can’t go back to any other life. He convinces the others to let him back in the band if they can get a gig. After some trouble, Fish manages to get them a show in Indiana. However, they “borrow” Matt’s mothers’ car without telling her. It is reported stolen and the show never happens after they are pulled over by the cops. All of the kids’ parents are furious at this point and now they can’t even have band practice. Fish ends up moving to the basement of a sushi restaurant, boiling hot and rat infested. Matt finds a way for them all to practice using web cams since they can’t see each other. Matt’s little sister sees the video of the four of them including her very naked uncle and posts it on You Tube. It ends up getting millions of views and a record label signs them. After this they spend time recording followed by a tour. Their shows go good and they start maintaining a larger and larger fan base. After Fish has them partying a bit too hard and lands them all in jail, Curtis’ mom (Applegate) ends up staying on tour with them. The band’s manager trying to get rid of Fish and for A.D.D. to play for his old band that he refuses to open for, uses the attraction Fish has for Cutis’ mother to get Curtis to turn on him, possibly ruining the great thing the band had going for them.

The actors in the film were all very talented and helped out the likeability of the movie quite a bit. Rainn Wilson was good, but for those Dwight Shrute fans, don’t be expecting that level of hilarity in his performance. Wilson does well with what he is given and overall is pretty funny. I was surprised with Teddy Geiger who played Curtis. I was impressed with how well he portrayed the moody and troubled teenager. It wasn’t just for looks as his character had issues of his father’s abandonment before he was ever born that he continued to deal with. I like his seriousness since it is something you don’t always see in teens today. It especially helped balance out Wilson’s extreme goofiness. As Geiger's first film, this has been good role for him to make the music to film transfermation. I was very happy to see Emma Stone (Superbad) in this. Unlike many teenage comedies, Geiger, Gad, and particularly Stone really seemed like they were teenagers. Stone shows a bit of rebellion and overall just exerts a very down to earth free thinking girl that you can’t help but adore. Josh Gad kind of reminded me of a much shyer and less vile Jonah Hill. He played the nerdy character without any stereotypes, just a smart guy, who because of his looks wasn’t noticed by girls, until the band got big anyway. Even when it did this though, he didn’t get a big head and was still shy about approaching girls even though he clearly had a huge fan who came to every concert wearing “I Love Matt” shirts.

Christina Applegate as always was a pleasure to see. She used her charm through her character and added understanding as her character had made mistakes and even had regrets in her past. She had been in Fish’s place before and just chose to take the other direction; that of responsibility and adulthood. Jane Lynch was stern and funny, reminding me of a bit of her character in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, just more parental and less sexual. Jeff Garlin as Matt’s dad was the funniest one in the film. I loved his enthusiasm despite his typical working stiff and family man role. You could tell that he was secretly like Fish inside. He wanted that rebellion and rock star lifestyle, yet he went to work everyday and stuck to the daily routine of things.

The Rocker was completely shot in Cleveland, mostly in the downtown area. There are shots of The Rock ‘n Roll Hall of fame, Jacob’s Field, and concert halls like the Q Arena and the Agora are where the concerts take place and are talked about through the movie. I have to say it was pretty cool to be watching the screening of this film inside of Tower City Cinemas while watching on the screen the sign for Tower City on that big electrical guitar. The film uses the setting very well and shows many of the highlights.

One of the things that holds The Rocker back the most is the slapstick comedy. It is actually very funny when it starts off. It even manages to work throughout most of the film. There is just far too much of it, so it starts to seem a bit too redundant and repetitive. Fish is constantly injured in practically every other scene and ends up being in practically a full body cast. Some of the jokes could have left out. Fortunately, this isn’t the only comedy that is used. Especially just the way that some of the actors work off of each other and the lingo and occasional sharp dialogue helps balance out the unnecessary and not so funny parts. The Rocker is very predictable, from the minute the film starts you will most likely know what will happen in the rest of the film. Still, it manages to be a lot of fun to watch just as long as you know what to expect.